He connected with the local people

When he came to the town, “he met a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla,” (18:2).  Paul went to see them, and “because he was a tent maker as they were, he stayed and worked with them” (v.3)

Here is an example of relationship building.  They had something in common – tent making, and that formed the basis of their relationship.  They were local, even though they were transplants from another city.

At this point in the story, we do not know if Aquila and/or Priscilla are believers.  We know that eventually they are, because of their role in discipling Apollos when they all meet him for the first time in Ephesus.

I recalled reading about the Luke 10 principles from The Rabbit and the Elephant (see review of The Rabbit and the Elephant).  There, the authors remind us of how Jesus sent out the people ahead of him, to find the “person of peace” and to stay with that person.  We see this pattern in Paul’s work here in Athens.  Aquila and Priscilla were those persons of peace.”

He worked among them

While staying at the house of Aquila and Priscilla, Paul used that as a base for his outreach every Sabbath.  Verse 4 reads “Every Sabbath he reasoned in the synagogue, trying to persuade Jews and Greeks.”

During the rest of the week, Paul was likely making his tents and setting up his business.  Costs were likely low as his lodging was covered, and he wasn’t supporting a family.

He devoted himself full time

Verse 5 reads: “When Silas and Timothy came from Macedonia, Paul devoted himself exclusively to preaching.”  This suggests some possible growth in Paul’s business – either

• Paul had made enough funds from selling tents that he was free, or
• Silas and Timothy took over business operations, or
• Business had grown to the point where a manager was in charge, or
• Aquila and Priscilla were running the business to support Paul (All three go to Ephesus).

Once they arrived, Paul was able to devote himself full time to the ministry of teaching.  As was his pattern, first to the Jews, and then to the Gentiles.  Verse 6 shows his opposition from the Jews, so he setup his teaching base next door.

Paul’s fear

Paul was busy doing good work.  Building relationships, conversing with people, and doing the basics of evangelistic work.  Yet even he was afraid of those who mocked, ridiculed, and opposed him.

The Lord gave Paul a vision one night: “Do not be afraid.”  At first, I thought this was the common greeting of angelic visitors, but as I peered into first Corinthians, I read “I came to you in weakness and with much trembling” (1 Cor 2:3).

Then there is guidance: “For I am with you, . . . .because I have many people in this city.”

Elijah had a similar fear – when he thought he was the only one – the Lord reminded him that there were others.

When one faces that kind of fear in personal evangelism, it can be emotionally draining.  When one thinks of all the other fears that hinder personal evangelism, we have this reminder that Paul faced similar fears.

How did the Lord comfort him?

“keep on speaking, do not be silent. For I am with you”

In other words, God reminded Paul of his presence, and the presence of others in that city who could help him.

If you are a church planter, perhaps one prayer could be “Lord, where are the other people in this city who are called to help us?”

The question that stirs in my mind – what are my fears?

Planting Churches

This missionary work wasn’t setup and funded overnight.

In this case, Paul lives among his initial contacts in Corinth and then sets up and runs his business.  He grows it to the point where he can hand it off, likely using the proceeds to fund his own church planting or missionary activity.

In receiving comfort from God about his fear in the face of rejection, he likely begins to pray, “Lord, where are the other people.”  We see that new relationships develop in the next 18 months while Paul remains:

• Titius Justus, a worshipper of God.
• Crispus, the synagogue ruler and his household.
• Sostehenes, the next synagogue ruler (v.17), who helped write 1 Corinthians (1:1)
• Cloe’s household (1 Cor 1:11)

We can see how the Lord answered Paul’s prayer.

This webinar has passed.

You can watch the replay here: Rabbit and the Elephant Webinar Replay

Here is the resource page: Rabbit and the Elephant Resource Page

Here is a book review: Rabbit and the Elephant Review

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Free Webinar Date: Tuesday, May 26, 2009 Time: 9:00pm Eastern US Time Register on line :

A movement of house churches is reaching the tipping point in North America.  Some claim it’s a second Reformation.

How could we change the world if our Christian faith began multiplying at a rapid pace — through a way of life that is explosive and transformational?

We can grow, can we reproduce?

Tony and Felicity Dale of  http://www.house2house.com and http://www.simplechurch.com will join me, Chris Walker, and share some of the insights found in their book on simple churches. “The Rabbit and the Elephant: Why small is the new big for Today’s Church.” (Barna Books, May 2009)

As Christians, we are the church—whether we meet in office buildings, college dorm rooms, coffee shops, factories, or homes—and the Holy Spirit uses us to expand that church to the far reaches of the globe.

By practicing “simple church,” we’ll find that a small gathering of friends loving Jesus together and reaching out to the community around them can help us to be the church, the way God intended.

The Rabbit and the Elephant Synopsis:

If you put two elephants in a room together and close the door, in 22 months you may get one baby elephant. But two rabbits together for the same amount of time will result in thousands of baby rabbits! In The Rabbit and the Elephant, “micro church” planters Tony and Felicity Dale use the “rabbit” illustration to show the pace at which the Christian faith can (and should) be growing—through evangelism that is explosive and transformational. The Rabbit and the Elephant contains the key to 21^st century evangelism—taking the Gospel to where the pain and the people are.

We’ll look at

• how “church” across the world is changing from being event-based to life and relationship-based.
• how small and simple churches can multiply rapidly.
• how to incorporate spiritual growth and outreach into every aspect of our lives.

*** No product pitches or sales (with exception of book mentions), but donations towards the cost of the webinar can be made after the webinar. ****

After the event, a PDF handout will be made available to participants.

Special note: I will conduct a special giveaway to 2 webinar attendees.  The only requirement is that you must be a resident of the US or Canada and that you attend the webinar.

Registration is Free, but required.

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To be automatically informed as to our next webinar, signup for our Free Evangelism Newsletter and the a 5 part course on Church Hospitality.

Church Hospitality Book Recommendations

How to Welcome Church Visitors, Chris Walker

A practical how to manual on first impressions with study questions.

Fusion: Turning First-Time Guests into Fully-Engaged Members of Your Church, Nelson Searcy

A book focused the mechanics of an effective assimilation process for his church.

Sticky Church (Leadership Network Innovation Series)

Strategy of sermon-based small groups to retain new people coming to your church.

First Impressions: Creating Wow Experiences In Your Church

A book focused on training welcoming teams in large campus churches.

Related Links on EvangelismCoach.org

• 15 Strategies to Increase Number of First Time Visitors
• What to say to A Church Visitor
• 10 Church Visitor Gift Ideas
• How to Make Church Visitor Welcome Packets
• 10 Tips for Church Greeters

The Actual Presentation

Download the PPT Welcoming Church Visitors April 2009

View more presentations from Chris Walker.

1. In the name of Jesus Christ invite the Holy Spirit to lead the prayer group.

We are Christian believers who pray in Jesus name.  We need to remind ourselves of this regularly.  Asking the Holy Spirit to lead the prayer group helps us from keeping our agenda from taking control

2. Offer a time of praise and worship of Jesus Christ.

Worship is where we connect with the Father’s heart.

Praising God for his works, thanking God for making a relationship with Him possible, and declaring one to another the marvelous works of the Lord strengthens our faith and reminds us to always be watching for God’s activity in our life.

3. Lead in a time of confession and prayer ministry with one another.

This may be a time to deal with any issues in the group.

Confession of sins or burdens clears the way to receiving guidance from the Holy Spirit.

Conclude with prayers for one another, absolution and passing the peace.

4. Report on what God is doing.

Here the members of the team will briefly share any evangelism conversations they may have experienced or opportunities they may have missed.

Reflect upon and give thanks for these.

It may be that the Spirit will lead the team to pray for each one of your group and those to whom they have been given the opportunity to share the gospel.

5. Move into Intercession

The following may be helpful:

Pray according to Jesus’ commands: Pray thy Kingdom come. In addition, pray that God the Father will send laborers. Ask God to show you specifically where His Kingdom is to come. Ask God specifically who the laborers are whom He is raising up. Be ready to be one of them!

Go through Paul’s list of ways of praying for evangelism. Linger on any of these that seem especially important for your situation.

One by one, with the whole group agreeing in prayer, lift up the names of those who have been given to the individuals in the group to be prayed into salvation. (A list should be kept by the leader of who these people are – this could be done by the whole group or in small groups.)

6. Discern open doors for the gospel.

Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal the open doors in the community, the church, the world and in individuals for the gospel.

7. Ask God to reveal any blocks to the gospel message in these situations or people.

8. Ask the Lord what you or the team are being called to do.

9. Discern together what God is saying

God speaks to us through Scripture.  For those of us who believe in the ongoing work of Spiritual gifts and the guidance given by the holy Spirit, we may need to talk about impressions, leadings, visions, prophetic words, or by consensus of the group as part of that discernment. Keep a record of this guidance.

10. Pray for this guidance

Ask God for steps in implementation. Write these down as they are revealed for further discernment, prayer and implementation. These may later be taken to the church leadership for approval and implementation.

11. Conclude the meeting with praise and giving glory to Jesus Christ.

Note: The eleven steps above were first presented in a manual on personal evangelism through PRMI’s Phillip Endeavor. That has been further refined and developed in the Evangelism Dunamis.

See Part I of Evangelism Where You Live – A Review Part I

See Part II of Evangelism Where You Live – A Review Part II

This final section of Chapters 5 – 8 gets into the nuts and bolts of what this might look like in the local church.

CBSE involves a Christ follower who serves others out of his or her passion, using one’s spiritual gifts at connection points of need in the community to demonstrate the love of Jesus to others as a salt and light servant.  . . . .

Administratively, CBSE reduces the church’s events and ongoing programs to allow people to be deployed into their daily lives to exercise their passions and gifts. (73)

Chapter 5: Salt and Light Servants

The majority of current discipleship material seems to be focused on information, not so much on experiential transformation.  The idea was that better information and accumulated information would lead to spiritual transformation.

The authors have seen this descend into matters of personal preference, rallies around the latest Christian bestseller, and rabbit trails into the most effectively marketed latest trend .

However, they see a shift from information to experience.

A method that fosters experience to help shape a person’s spiritual formation.

Educational materials are connected with service in the community “as the context to live out the expression of a life in relationship to Christ.”

I have often noted and taught that I learn by doing.

In other businesses, I could study, study, study, but until I was actually doing, the study didn’t make sense.  Study lead to hypothesizing, thinking about 1000 what ifs.

But not until I got into people’s lives and talking with them 1-1 about their spiritual journey did any of the studies seems to start finding a purpose.

Perhaps a quote from Randy Pope captures this better in this illustration:

Much in the way that eating creates no appetite for exercise, so too, I have found that Bible study and prayer alone do not create mission oriented Christians.  But, just as exercise creates a desire for food and drink, mission related activities create an insatiable thirst and hunger to feed on God’s word (89).

The idea is deploy your church members to serve their community and that kind of relational context will spur personal growth.

Eating has never created in us a desire to exercise, but preparing to run 26.2 miles in about 4 hours definitely creates not only a desire, but a need to eat (89).

In the same way, service may very well be the missing factor in developing fully devoted followers of Christ.  Transformation happens in combination with information and experience.

Chapter 6: Connection Points

The subtitle focuses the chapter on Evangelism Training.  The authors have given lots of evangelism training over the years, from memorizing gospel scripts, to relational evangelism seminars, yet not seeing any statistical evidence of new believers.  The rare church had more than 5 new believers in a year after the seminar.

Church’s are beginning to ask “Why is training people on how to share their faith not resulting in new Christ followers?”

The authors claim that intentional community service is the missing ingredient.  The chief issue is that our church members have lost touch with genuine relationships with people far from God.

To fulfill the front half of the Great Commission the process will always begin with a Christ-follower connecting with someone far from God.  To lead someone into a personal relationship with Christ has little to do with whether someone has attended training and learned a model presentation to the Gospel (95).

Connecting Points

The chapter lays out how to find connection points with the local community, beginning with an inventory from Becoming a Contagious Christian, Hybels and Mittleberg:

• People we know
• People we used to know
• People we would like to know.

I use a similar idea with Spheres of Influence.

The key for churches is to assist members in creating a context for connection, but it remains up to the individual member to connect.

The third group, people we would like to know, is where the role of community service comes into play.  Relationships develop best around a need the mutual relationship can meet.

Where is your church member passionate?  Where is their burden? Examples:

• Single Moms?
• Fatherless kids?
• Teachers?
• Firefighters?
• Undercover FBI agents?
• Little League?

Where are their gifts?  Administratively gifted folks can organize events or run leagues.  Mercy gifted folks can visit people.

We have come to realize that not assisting our church members to develop a connection point into an authentic relationship is simply not providing good leadership.

Chapter 7 and 8: Implementing CBSE

Chapter 7 and 8 map out how to make such philosophical changes in implementing Community Based servant evangelism.  The authors note that there are several books about systemically changing a congregation, and they note that their system works when followed.

The process is organic and leadership driven.

First four steps are for the pastor, the next two are are for the leadership, and the last 5 are how to make it public.

• Pray and read the Bible
• Church leadership must own the mission of “Love God and Love Others”
• Must be totally supported by the Senior Pastor and or Lead Pastor
• Enlist top / key church influencers
• Enlist a CBSE champion
• Enlist a CBSE leadership team
• Design a plan
• Provide training
• Cast the vision to your church
• Implement the plan
• Evaluate all aspects and correct

This list may seem generic in terms of changing systems, but the chapters tease them out more fully.

A Pastor’s Personal Prayer life

It strikes me how a pastor’s personal relationship with God is the root of this change, not only the pastors, but so also the rest of the leadership.

In a 2007 review of surveys of pastors,

two hundred seventy (270 or 26%) of pastors said they regularly had personal devotions and felt they were adequately fed spirituality.

Seven hundred fifty-six (756 or 72%) of the pastors we surveyed stated that they only studied the Bible when they were preparing for sermons or lessons.

If the root of systemic change in a church is found in a pastor’s personal relationship with God, then how can churches give their pastors time to nurture that relationship?    From another study in the same report:

We found that 90% of pastors work more than 50 hours a week. One out of three pastors state that being in the ministry is clearly hazardous for their families. One out of three pastors felt totally burned out within the first five years of ministry.

Research from Crandall (see 5 phases of renewal from Turnaround and Beyond: A Hopeful Future for the Small Membership Church) indicates that personal renewal is the number one factor in successful turnaround in churches.

Research from Martha Gay Reese (Unbinding the Gospel: Real Life Evangelism (Real Life Evangelism Series) elevates the importance of prayer for a congregation to pick up and maintain an evangelistic passion.

Order your copy

Evangelism Where You Live: Engaging Your Community from Amazon

I’ve been reading Evangelism Where You Live: Engaging Your Community and I think it is a must read book for pastors of churches seeking to engage its community.

Over the next few days leading up to the Community Based Servant Evangelism Webinar, I’ll be pulling out a few themes.

A philosophy of Ministry

The foundational drive of this book is to present a philosophy of ministry that should work it’s way into the DNA of a congregation.

A way of doing ministry in which Christ followers model, encourage, and equip others to be salt and light servants where they live . . . living out the great commandment and the great commission in our network of relationships in the marketplace and neighborhoods.

Chapter 1: Foundations

Pate looks at ineffective methods of church based evangelism and the relationship between personal evangelism and the local church.  The end results he points out is a lot of effort, but little results.

Programmatic changes have not led to church growth, so perhaps a systemic change needs to be made.

Ever after a lot of evangelism training, people can’t give a scripted gospel presentation, but they can answer the question: “What is God up to in your life?”

But all the emphasis on programming in the past few decades has created several barriers to this kind of relational evangelism on a church level.  Friendship evangelism models have been around for some time, but how do you mobilize the church to engage the mission field where it is planted?

Based on his own experience as a consultant and a practitioner, Pate and Wilkes put forth a philosophy of ministry that makes sense and develops this idea throughout the book:

The key argument is:

The premise of this book is simple: the key for a local church is to create natural connection points for Christ-follower to intersect the lives of people far from God through service in the community as salt and light servants. (8)

The church must purposefully deploy people into the community, become friends of sinners, if Christ-followers are to live out the Great Commission.  (15)

Their answer, using the “salt and light” images of the NT:

Churches can deploy their members according to their passions and gifts to be an irresistible influence among the people of their community. (10).

We do not offer a presentation to be memorized but a lifestyle of service that engages tangible needs wherever they occur and seizes every opportunity in that interaction to introduce the person/people served to our Rescuer and Leader, Jesus. (18)

Chapter 2: Barriers that keep us out

Pate and Wilkes give a summary of barriers that keep church individuals from connecting with the neighborhood.

Time (or perceived lack of time), program maintenance, church structures, and unawareness of passion and spiritual gifts among members of your church are primary barriers that keep your people out of the community and within the walls of your church.

The chapter unfolds this list with great detail and I think accurately reflects what I see in churches that I consult with.

Time

Many churches have far too many time consuming programs, events, and meetings each week that do not enable their church to moves even one step forward in accomplishing either the Great Commission or the Great commandment (24)

To the pastor, they provide a simple way to calculate the total number of volunteer hours it takes to sustain the current programming of the the church.  The simple question is that with all the man hours church’s ask their people to give, is there any time left over for building relationships?

Church Programs

Programs are not bad, the authors are clear to say.  But are they the tail that wags the dog?  Do your programs assist the church in fulfilling its mission, or are they stale and lifeless relics of a past era?

People far from God are not looking for more things to do.  Are we a bit off center because of the countless hours we devote to the programs at our church? (27)

The authors encourage pastors to examine their church programming to see what is hindering the mission of intentionally deploying people in the community.

Church structure and control

Essentially, how does leadership respond to new ideas and new directions.  Are policies prohibiting new directions?  Does leadership trust new ways the Holy Spirit is leading?  Are new initiatives squashed or are people given freedom to pursue them?

Unawareness of Gifts and Passions

Passion determine where a person serves best, and gifts determine how.  Passion is God-given and answers the “where” of ministry.  Gifts are God-given and answers the “how” of ministry.  The authors maintain, rightfully so,

churches cannot reach their potential when those joined to the mission and vision of the church either (1) do not know their God-given passion and spiritual gift(s) or (2) if those aspects of who they are in Christ are underdeveloped.

Their main point in all of this is to explore how can the church get outside it’s walls?  How can the local church get out of the building and into the neighborhood when these barriers are in the way?

Learn more

Part II comes tomorrow — Grab my feed to have it delivered to you automatically

Learn more about this philosophy of ministry direct from the author, Stephen Pate.  Register for the Community Based Servant Evangelism Webinar this coming Thursday.

How does your church connect with the community?

Is your church over programmed but not developing mature Christians?

Is your church known in your community for it’s service?

Would the community notice if your church closed its doors?

Are your members leveraging their community service for as times to share their faith?

This webinar has passed

In this FREE online webinar, evangelism trainer and church consultant Stephen Pate will share practical steps to

• Get church members beyond the walls of over programmed churches
• Help pastors to grasp this philosophy of community service for evangelism
• Cast a vision for community based servant evangelism
• Find active ways to serve your community in Jesus name.
• Experience the transformational growth and watch your church grow.

Stephen Pate, author of Evangelism Where You Live: Engaging Your Community, will join me, Chris Walker, of www.Evangelismcoach.org in discussing this strategy as part of your evangelism outreach to your community.

*** No product pitches or sales (with exception of book mentions), but donations towards the cost of the webinar can be made after the webinar. ****

After the event, a PDF handout will be made available to participants.

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To be automatically informed as to our next webinar, signup for our Free Evangelism Newsletter.

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We are pleased to announce that our resource for new church development, Starting New Churches: A Discernment Process, has been revised and updated.

I know the principal authors and have skimmed the resource this morning and believe that if you are involved in planting a church, this study would be a good study for your team.

The authors write:

Each of the 16 gatherings suggests a Bible study and an extended time of prayer. We encourage you to engage this process slowly. Resist the temptation to rush through the Bible studies and prayerful reflection. New church development is not the implementation of successful models and techniques; it is the faithful discernment of God’s leading and the faithful implementation of God’s mission. Wrestle with the scriptures, listen, and fall on your knees in humility.

Church planters and those who are attracted to beginning new churches are often “doers.” We can’t wait to get started, bring in the kingdom, make it happen and happen now. Remember Jesus told his “doers” to go back to Jerusalem, pray and wait until God’s right time. We hope that all of you fellow “doers” will resist the temptation to start doing and will take the time to discuss, listen, discern, and wait for God’s right time. We have countless stories of teams who were delayed in their plans and the finding of the right leadership took longer than expected, yet in hindsight those delays led the team to the “perfect timing.”

You can see the preview here or click on the link to download the whole thing:
StartingNewChurches2.0